The Women’s Asia Cup cricket tournament was made into a mockery of sorts as far as outcomes were concerned with the top teams hammering and making mince meat of the weak sides.
With India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh making up the top sides, the presence of Nepal, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia provided the opportunity for the strong to feast on the weak.
The scenario came full circle when Sri Lanka’s swashbuckling Chamari Atapattu who has dominated the world’s best bowlers in recent matches, was afforded the opportunity to take full advantage of the situation as she massacred her counterparts from Malaysia with 98 runs off just 21 balls with 7 sixes and 14 fours and finished her innings at 119 in a total of 184 for 4 in 20 overs.
The girls from Malaysia caved in for just 40 runs.
In two other matches the Indian women scored 201 for 5 in 20 overs and strangled the UAE team to 123 for 9 before moving on to hit 178 for 3 and curtail the Nepal women for 96 in 20 overs in another game.
The Nepali women were also smashed by Pakistan who reached a target of 109 in under12 overs.
It also took Pakistan’s opening duo just 14.1 overs to reach a score of 103 made by the UAE team in another match.
Again Atapattu made merry hitting an unbeaten 49 with four sixes in reaching a target of 94 in just 11.3 overs against the Thai women while Bangladesh made 191 for 2 against Malaysia whose women made 77 for 8 in the last two qualifying games.
Overall the four strong teams or so-called ICC full members scored 1165 runs for the loss of just18 wickets in 134.2 overs while the weak nations together scored 736 runs losing 64 wickets in 159.5 overs.
Analysts contend the Asia Cup organisers could have done well to conduct a separate tournament for the underdog teams while also adding a country like Mongolia.
